Seminatore's 3-run blast powers Lunenburg in victory

Lunenburg s Miles Seminatore is greeted by teammates at home plate after hitting a three-run home run during Saturday s win over North Leominster in the Jimmy Fund Open Division playoffs in Leominster. (SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / JOHN LOVE )

LEOMINSTER -- The Lunenburg Little League Jimmy Fund Open Division team was sure fired up to play its opening-round playoff game against North Leominster.

Lunenburg, the No. 5 seed, got a major lift from 10-year-old Miles Seminatore -- who blasted a three-run home run in the first inning -- and great starting pitching from Hunter Matson en route to a 9-5 victory over No. 4 North Leominster Saturday afternoon at Justin DeSantis Field.

"I've been coaching five or six years," said Lunenburg acting manager Mike Pistone. "I started out in Fitchburg and we just moved to Lunenburg, and this is one of my proudest coaching moments. They dug deep. I asked them to give 100 percent and they did. They dug deep, focused in and did the job."

Right fielder Madox Grainger, who made a great catch in right field to end the first inning, knocked in Pagan with an infield dribbler that hit the third-base bag.

With one out, Carson Wilber got an RBI groundout to the pitcher, and AJ Wozniak plated two runs when he hit was misplayed.

Lunenburg followed that up by getting more breathing room with three runs in the bottom of the fifth to lead 9-5.

Iovanni smoked an RBI triple to right field, scoring Wright (walk), and later scored on a wild pitch.

Dumais walked, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on two North errors.

Corbin pitched 1 2-3 innings of relief for North and struck out four.

Dumais went 1 2-3 innings and struck out three for Lunenburg, and Petricca fanned three in the final 1 1-3 innings to pick up the save.

Diamond Dust

Announcer Jim Either had technical difficulties and couldn't get the national anthem to play on his iPhone before the start of Saturday's contest. So instead of fumbling around with his phone any longer, he elected to belt out a better-than-expected version of the national anthem on the microphone. It wasn't Whitney Houston quality, but definitely good enough to draw a strong round of applause from both fan bases and teams.

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